Mr. Lewis Purser:

I do not want the Senator to be too elated. While I highlighted possibly the more positive points in my presentation with regard to where the universities are doing well and where they are doing what they can, in each of the sections in the paper I also emphasised the areas in respect of which they could do much better. If we compare the position internationally with that which obtains here, it is obvious that we are not doing as well as we could in some areas.

The Senator inquired about the profile of the companies which provided feedback through the employers' survey.

They are two thirds indigenous, one third foreign ownership and fairly evenly spread between manufacturing and service and between large companies employing more than 250 people, medium-sized companies and small companies employing fewer than 50 people. One third is in Dublin and two thirds are outside Dublin. There is a good range of all types. We are not just getting feedback from companies such as Google, but from small and medium enterprises.